Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Given that Gaza is Egypt's first line of defence against Israeli aggression, it
should be a priority for President Morsi

Khaled Fahmy , Wednesday 19 Dec 2012Ahram Online

"During a recent episode of Al-Ittijah Al-Muaakes (The Opposite
Direction) on Al Jazeera, an Egyptian liberal lambasted President Mohamed Morsi
"for paying ample attention to his comrades in Gaza at the expense of the
Egyptian people."

The guest, who seemed quite exasperated and convulsive,
argued that Morsi should have devoted more of his time to tackling the numerous
problems facing the Egyptian people.....

Israel is Egypt's existential enemy

Whether we like it
or not, Israel has been, is and will always be Egypt's existential enemy. There
is a preponderance of evidence corroborating this fact. True, the principled
Israeli enmity toward Egypt is strongly connected with Egypt's historical
opposition to Zionism and the creation of Israel in Palestine. Egypt fought
several wars with Israel and a gulf of blood and fire still separates the
Egyptian people from the Zionist entity.

Yes, the two states reached a
peace treaty in 1978. However it is crystal clear that the Camp David treaty,
which the Egyptian leadership signed more or less under duress, did very little
to put an end to undeclared but definitive Israeli designs against
Egypt.

For this reason, most Egyptians consistently refused to
"normalise" relations with the Jewish state, causing widespread consternation in
Zionist circles, which sought to instigate successive American administrations
against Egypt, including the Mubarak regime.

Israel wanted to use the
Camp David treaty to strip Egypt of its Arab and Muslim character as well as
cause irreparable damage to the collective conscience and consciousness of the
Egyptian people. However, thanks to the enduring vigour and strong moral fabric
of the Egyptian people, the morbid Israeli designs were a gigantic fiasco.
According to Israel Shahak's book, Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The
Weight of Three Thousand Years, much of Egypt is actually part of Biblical
Israel according to some sages of the Talmud. This mythology is taught to Jewish
students in hundreds of Talmudic schools (yeshivot) and colleges throughout
Israel.

I would have thought that these ideas were no more than mythical
hallucinations on the part of some deranged so-called 'sages'. But when I found
out that many otherwise level-headed rabbis kept regurgitating these myths, I
began to view the matter differently.

In the final analysis, those who
urge their people to follow the example of Joshua in dealing with the
Palestinians (murderous ethnic cleansing) are capable of embarking on the
unthinkable.....

Even today, 36 years after the conclusion of the Camp David treaty, Israel
continues to threaten Egypt. On several occasions, Israeli officials threatened
to bomb the Aswan High Dam and incite non-Arab Nile basin countries to disrupt
water inflow to the Nile.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdore Lieberman,
who wanted to annihilate the Palestinians and throw handcuffed political
prisoners into the Dead Sea, called for ruining Egypt economically, politically
and even morally. The Egyptian media reported on several occasions the arrest of
Israeli agents with instructions to spread the AIDS virus in Egypt, generate
chaos, including sectarian conflicts between Muslims and Copts.....

First line of defence

Palestine, especially the Gaza
Strip, is Egypt's first line of defence against Israeli hegemony and aggression.
A strong Gaza should therefore be viewed as a strategic asset for Egypt and vice
versa.

In real terms, this means that a strong Gaza which can repulse or
at least deter Israeli aggression will strengthen Egyptian national security.
Israel had sought on several occasions to revive old plans to transfer
Palestinian refugees to the Sinai Peninsula. However, it was the Palestinian
leadership whether in Gaza or Ramallah that resolutely rejected the insidious
designs.

In truth, discordance between Egypt and the Palestinians would
be a real calamity for both that would only benefit Israel as well as the common
enemies of Egypt and Palestine....."